Abandoned Baby Twins Found at Fire Station

SHAWNEE, OK – Authorities in Shawnee say a phone call to dispatchers led to the discovery of twins left in a pickup truck outside a fire station.

The twin boy and girl were found about 6:30 a.m. Saturday in the back of the truck owned by fire Lt. Chuck Tade that was parked outside the station, The Oklahoman newspaper reports.

Tade says dispatchers received a phone call just after 1 a.m. but couldn’t understand what the caller was saying. He says it took until about 6 a.m. to determine the caller said two babies were left in a pickup outside a fire station.

A dispatcher who was by then off-duty began driving to city fire stations and found the infants at the second station she checked.

The babies are now in state custody.

A note was left with the twins that read: “Take care of my babies. I’m poor and can’t do it.”

Oklahoma enacted a safe haven law in 2001 which gives parents immunity from prosecution if certain rules are followed in leaving babies who are at most a week old at public facilities, including fire stations. During the 2009 fiscal year, 570 children were abandoned in the state, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services told the newspaper.

Still, police officers want to find the mother even though prosecution against the mother is unlikely, a spokesman for the Shawnee police told the newspaper. Police would like to know the identity of the babies’ father to see if he is interested in obtaining custody of the children.

Police also would like to learn the children’s medical history from the mother, the spokesman told the newspaper.